Community of Learners

Institute in Pastoral Ministries

The Institute in Pastoral Ministries brings deacons, lay persons, priests, and religious brothers and sisters into a community of baptized learners.

Each year we enroll about 80 students from about 30 states into three cohorts (a class that travels together through their studies). About 25 faculty and staff facilitate our "academic retreat," which incorporates participants from parishes, chanceries, schools, and homes that are both rural and urban. Before enrolling into IPM, some students had not been inside a classroom for decades. But now, at our "mission on the Mississippi," all of us strive to know and to enjoy God and our Catholic faith.

Our 2011 summer residency will mark the 26th anniversary of pioneering service to Roman Catholic deacons, educators, and lay ministers across the Americas. Since 1986 our Institute in Pastoral Ministries has graduated or professionally certified over 330 men and women from 35 states and provinces with Catholic doctrine, theology, and pastoral skills for their local church.